A poem shared with Pastor Dee from Carolyn Alexander: —–Original Message—– From: Carolyn Alexander Sent: Tue, Jul 5, 2011 7:12 am Subject: Almost a Conversation — Mary Oliver Almost a Conversation I have not really, not yet, talked with otter about his life. He has so many teeth, he has trouble with […]
Carmel: Curiosity
A sea otter The distance between the marine mammals and where we were allowed to observe had one compromise; if the otter or seal wanted to check us out they could come as close as they wanted to. Patti and I were talking when just 4 feet in front of us appeared this face – in […]
Carmel: Boundaries
There are several protective rules for sea kayaking and the water mammals. For instance, there are very stiff fines if one gets too close to them or annoys them. The indicator of this is how the otter or seal reacts. The otter, typically floating on their backs, will sit up in the water with head looking […]
Carmel: Motherly Love
Otter love In the Otter world, older mothers are considered the best mothers. The younger mothers are still learning and have difficulty protecting and providing for their young. The older they are the higher the baby’s survival rate. If an Otter is over 11 years old, there is almost 100% survival rate of the young. What […]
Carmel: The Power of Kelp
As we would sit quietly watching the otters play and eat and groom, we were aware our boats would drift with the tide. Our guide, John, educated us to a natural braking mechanism: kelp. By holding onto the kelp we could hold our position to keep our eyes open to see each angle of the […]
Carmel: Otters – Seals – Sea lions
We were overwhelmed with seeing over 30 otters; our guide said it was otter heaven. They were quite amazing. They camouflaged themselves in the kelp so it’s easy to miss them unless they are eating or sleeping in a raft, with tails up in the air. The seals were also playing and swimming around us […]
Carmel: Adventurous and Playful
I learned part of an adventure on play is those playmates we choose to play with, to travel with, to laugh with and be ourselves with… so from the first leg of the sabbatical travel to Carmel are the amazing, playful, delightful, lovely, fun, loving crew—Laura, Patti, Nicki, Julia, Kelly, Kay and Dee. Here are a […]